Mushroom harvesting equipment

ABSTRACT

Mushroom harvesting equipment with an intake section that reaches over the mushroom cultivating bed, a stem cutting section and a transporting and sorting section. The mushrooms are cut off by cutting wheels and transported via wheel to the sorting section where the sorting to dimension of the mushrooms is realized by widening transporting cords. The mushrooms fall in containers placed on scales.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a device for the automatic harvestingof mushrooms.

2. Description of the Related Art

When mushrooms are harvested they are manually picked. The person thatharvests the mushrooms must make his choice of the desired dimension bysight. The stem of the mushroom must then be cut off. This happensusually with a hand-held knife. The mushroom is then put down in a boxor carton. This way of harvesting requires great skill and is very laborintensive. There have been trials with fully automatic harvestingmachines, but these have proven to be failures. There are also machinesthat harvest the whole cultivating bed in one passage. This way ofoperation has the disadvantage that the harvest is a mixture of toolarge to too small. In this way the cultivating bed is not completelyused.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The mushroom harvesting equipment of the present invention is equippedwith a stemcutting section and a transportation section which has asorting capability to dimension. The intake section reaches over themushroom cultivating bed, allowing the operator to use both hands forharvesting. The result is that, in an easier way, a large production canbe made with a better dimension classification, which gives the producta higher quality.

The mushroom harvesting equipment of the present invention foresees acombination of a manual picking and mechanical processing of themushrooms. This means that the machine is equipped withover-the-cultivating bed reaching intake equipment which uses cords fordelivery to the stemcutting section. The stemcutting section consists oftwo circular cutters that rotate in opposite direction, after which, thecut-off champions are carried off and, in the mean time, selected bydimension. The invention will be described in conjunction with thedrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a top view of the transporting means and cutting equipmentof one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a side view of one embodiment of the present invention witha section of the cultivating bed.

FIG. 4 shows a top view of the intake equipment of another embodiment ofthe present invention.

In FIG. 1, the intake equipment (1) is shown with cutting section (2)and the transport section (3). The mushrooms (4) are placed on thetransportation cords (5) and (6). These move as indicated by arrows (7)and (8). The mushrooms (4) are transported to the cutting section (2)where two oppositely rotating cutting wheels (9) and (10) are found. Thecutting wheels overlap each other partially and have a circumferentialspeed which is equal to or greater than the transportation speed of themushrooms (4). The cut-off mushrooms (4) are then further transported tothe end of the intake section (1) where, with the help of wheel (11)(indicated schematically in FIG. 3) which is furnished with a flexiblerim, the mushrooms (4) are forced to the transportation section (3). Itis possible to adjust the pulleys (14) and 15) so that the cords (12)and (13) are widening. The mushrooms (4) will fall between the cords(12) and (13) when the distance is greater than the diameter of themushrooms (4). Thus, the widening forms zones (16) and (17) wheremushrooms of a certain dimension and tolerance, determined by thewidening, will fall through. Containers can be placed in each zone andin this way the mushrooms (4), selected by dimension, can be collected.By packing the containers on scales with a preset weight, it is possibleto deliver mushrooms ready for shipping. The containers with the scalescan be placed on tray (18). The zones (16) and (17) are marked withindicating fingers (19).

The drive of the transportation means is realized with an (not shown)electrical motor, which drives the shafts of the cutting wheels (9) and(10). The pulleys (22) and (23) are driven via chains or toothed belts(20) and (21). Disk (11) is mounted on the shaft of pulley (23). Thepulleys (22) and (23) may have two closely placed grooves for cords. Theupper groove is intended for the intake cords and the lower groove forthe transporting cords. The intake cords (5) and (6) are tightened withthe pulleys (24) which are mounted on arms (25).

On various places are guiding plates (26) mounted to prevent earlyfalling of the mushrooms (4). The cords can have a cross section of asimple circle or a profile with possible extensions for transporting themushrooms (4).

In FIG. 4 is drawn a variant of the intake section. Instead of theintake cords, intake disks (27) that rotate in opposite directions areused. These intake disks overlap each other and the pulleys (28) of thetransport cords (29) and (30). On the same shafts as those of thepulleys (28) are mounted cutting wheels (31). Because of the overlappingposition of the transport wheels (27) and pulleys (28), the mushrooms(4) will be transported to the cutting wheels (31). The transport cords(29) and 30) can be adjusted to widen to obtain the desired sorting.Containers with scales can be placed underneath the transport cords (29)and (30) if necessary.

I claim:
 1. Equipment for processing picked mushrooms, comprising:astemcutting section for cutting stems from picked mushrooms; a first setof transport elements for reaching over a mushroom cultivating bed andtransporting picked mushrooms to said stemcutting section; a second setof transport elements provided perpendicular to said first set oftransport elements for carrying picked mushrooms away from saidstemcutting section, wherein said second set of transport elements widenso as to sort picked mushrooms by dimension; and a transport disk forcarrying and driving picked mushrooms when picked mushrooms traversefrom said first set of transport elements to said second set oftransport elements.
 2. Equipment for processing picked mushrooms inaccordance with claim 1, wherein said second set of transport elementsincludes two cord-like elements in a horizontal plane, said cord-likeelements being runable at the same speed.
 3. Equipment for processingpicked mushrooms in accordance with claim 2, wherein said two cord-likeelements are placed so as to provide a widening clearance, such that thedistance between said two cord-like elements determines sortingdimensions of picked mushrooms.
 4. Equipment for processing pickedmushrooms in accordance with claim 2, wherein said two cord-likeelements can be adjusted to a dimension for sorting picked mushrooms bymovable pulleys.
 5. Equipment for processing picked mushrooms inaccordance with claim 1, wherein said stemcutting section comprises twocircular cutters rotatable in opposite directions.
 6. Equipment forprocessing picked mushrooms in accordance with claim 5, wherein saidcircular cutters are rotatable at a circumferential velocity equal to orgreater than a transport speed of picked mushrooms.
 7. Equipment forprocessing picked mushrooms in accordance with claim 1, wherein saidfirst set of transport elements comprises two rows of overlappingrotatable transport disks, a first row of transport disks beingrotatable in a direction opposite that of a second row of transportdisks.
 8. Equipment for processing picked mushrooms in accordance withclaim 7, wherein circular cutters are connected to said transport disks.9. Equipment for processing picked mushrooms in accordance with claim 8,wherein said first set of transport elements includes two cord-likeelements in a horizontal plane.